On the 25th of July 1968
Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical letter On Human Life,
confirming Church teaching that the marital act must be open to new life and that
artificial contraception, therefore, was a grave offense against God. This quickly earned
him the enmity of the world and many Catholics. In an act of filial love and submission
Padre Pio sent the following letter to the Pope shortly before his own death on 23
September.

San Giovanni Rotondo
September 12, 1968

Your Holiness,

I unite myself with my brothers and present at your feet my affectionate respect, all my
devotion to your august person in an act of faith, love and obedience to the dignity of
him whom you are representing on this earth. The Capuchin Order has always been in the
first line in love, fidelity, obedience and devotion to the Holy See; I pray to God that
it may remain thus and continue in its tradition of religious seriousness and austerity,
evangelical poverty and faithful observance of the Rule and Constitution, certainly
renewing itself in the vitality and in the inner spirit, according to the guides of the
Second Vatican Council, in order to be always ready to attend to the necessities of Mother
Church under the rule of your Holiness.
I know that your heart is suffering much these days in the interest of the Church, for the
peace of the world, for the innumerable necessities of the people of the world, but above
all, for the lack of obedience of some, even Catholics, to the high teaching that you,
assisted by the Holy Spirit and in the name of God, are giving us. I offer you my prayers
and daily sufferings as a small but sincere contribution on the part of the least of your
sons in order that God may give you comfort with his Grace to follow the straight and
painful way in the defense of eternal truth, which never changes with the passing of the
years. Also, in the name of my spiritual children and the Prayer Groups, I thank you for
your clear and decisive words that you especially pronounced in the last encyclical
"Humanae Vitae"; and I reaffirm my faith, my unconditional obedience to your
illuminated directions.

May God grant victory to the truth, peace to his Church, tranquility to the world, health
and prosperity to your Holiness so that, once these fleeting doubts are dissipated, the
Kingdom of God may triumph in all hearts, guided by your apostolic work as Supreme Pastor
of all Christianity.

Prostrate at your feet, I beg you to bless me in the company of my brothers in religion,
my spiritual children, the Prayer Groups, my sick ones and also to bless all our good
endeavours which we are trying to fulfill under your protection in the name of Jesus.